Running back Danny Ware #28 of the New York Giants rushes with the ball and is stopped by Marcus Thomas #79 of the Denver Broncos during NFL action at Invesco Field at Mile High on November 26, 2009 in Denver, Colorado.

Q: Could Marcus Thomas be (the Broncos) starting nose tackle in the future?

A: Brent, Thomas has already played some nose tackle for the Broncos in some of their specialty packages on defense, usually on some passing downs when the Broncos have gone a little lighter up front at times in search or more quickness in the pass rush.

He’s quick for his size — 316 pounds — and that was certainly what attracted the Broncos to him in the weeks leading up to the 2007 draft. Mike Shanahan basically traded away the second day of the draft to move up and take Thomas in the fourth round that year because he thought Thomas had first-round athleticism.

Thomas had slipped on a lot of teams’ draft boards because he had been tossed off the football team at Florida in his last year there and some teams had some concerns about his off the field behavior.

On the field he has flashed the ability to get into the gaps quickly, but as far as being a full-time nose tackle a guy has to show he could consistently anchor at the point of attack on run downs. Thomas, or anyone else, would not be a full-timer at the position until he could do that.

I think the Broncos would already have him in there if that’s where they believed he fit the defense the best.

And while 316 is big in the workaday world, it’s a little smaller for the elite nose tackles. New England’s Vince Wilfork is listed at 325, but scouts believe he plays weighing more than that and Pittsburgh’s Casey Hampton is listed at 325 as well.

Dallas plays Jay Ratliff on the nose in its 3-4 and he is listed at 302 pounds, so it can be done and a “smaller” player can succeed in there. But again, the key, more than weight, is how the nose tackle anchors in the run game, engages blockers, on those early downs.

So if he isn’t huge, he has to play huge.

Cleveland’s Shaun Rogers is one of the biggest in the league at about 350 pounds or more, but he plays with far more quickness than most interior defensive linemen. And anyone who saw him rumble 66 yards for a touchdown on an interception return against the Broncos in ’07 knows not many guys that big move like he does.

It’s one of the most difficult position to fill when teams make the decision to go to a 3-4. There aren’t many colleges that play a true nose tackle to be able to pick one in the draft so teams are routinely converting players to do the job.

But not sure there has ever been a dominant 3-4 team on defense who didn’t have a quality, productive impact player on the nose. It just might be both the toughest, and most important, job to fill.

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